Michoacan, Mexico

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Michoacan, Mexico
December, 2007

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Caption: Carlos, at age 3, LOVES coloring.

Carlos with magic coloring book

Caption: Every Sunday morning we get a kilo of Carnitas, which are roasted pork chunks. We eat them with just tortillas and salsa, washed down with Coke. A simple meal, and usually there are leftovers for later in the day.

Buying carnitas

Caption: The Cuitzeo street markets are every Sunday and Thursday. Depending on the number of venders, streets are blocked off for 3 to 6 or 7 blocks. All that lovely fresh food!

Sunday Market, Cuitzeo

Caption: These people are selling fruits and vegetables, as are many others. We usually look over all the venders before we pick which one to buy a particular item from. Though we also have our favorite vendors, who greet us with lots of questions (in Spanish), and usually try to get us to sample some unfamiliar fruit, or throw in a little cilantro for free.

At the Cuitzeo market

Cuitzeo street market

Caption: Quite a pile of nice oranges here.

Cuitzeo street market

Cuitzeo street market

Caption: We bought some nice handmade glazed pottery bowls here.

Caption: I'm knitting a sweater for Carla, which they are all fascinated by. Last year I made one for Carlos, which he wears all the time. As they say, they are calientita - so warm! Not that you would think warm sweaters necessary in this climate, but before long we are all putting on long sleeves in the evening.

Brigida and Sarah on the hotel verandah

Caption: Sarah is knitting a sweater for Carla, and Liseth is picking which design she wants Sarah to make for her.

Brigida, Sarah & Lizeth consider knitting patterns

Caption: Carlos regularly ate about a quarter of a papaya a day. Yum!

Carlos loves Isaac AND papaya

Carlos does NOT love having his nose cleaned

Caption: Early every morning, the parking area and the sidewalk and street in front of the hotel is swept clean. Each household in town sweeps their area of the sidewald and street every morning, in fact. Then all the flowers get watered, and often the pavement as well to keep dust down.

Juan waters the roses

Caption: Carlos watches videos of rodeos, in which cowboys ride and then get thrown and perhaps stomped by a bull, incessantly. He loves them. And he re-enacts regularly with this big cow and a figure that can sit on it.

Carlos plays toros

Caption: Sarah has played a horse game with the kids for years, which the girls in particular ask for every year.

Carlos, Carla and Sarah

Caption: This is in our hotel room.

Isaac & Carlos with a farm set

Caption: This is inside the little biological park in the center of Cuitzeo. There is also a little children's library in the park.

Bananas with flower

Walking toward the Cuitzeo plaza

Caption: The Cuitzeo monastery was built about 1545. It is currently being restored, and is a museum.

Cuitzeo monastery wall

Caption: Also called an exconvento, because it is no longer used as a monastery, but now converted into a museum.

Caption: We are sitting around the old well. No longer used, but it still has water in it.

Caption: Both the stone doorway and the wooden doors are beautifully carved, and huge.

Church entrance

Juan greets a friend

Caption: This is on the street leading up to our house.

By (on) the monastery wall

Caption: There is a lot of construction going on, the church and monastery are being renovated, and all the overhead electric wires in town are being moved to underground conduits. Cuitzeo has been designated a "Pueblo Magico" by the Mexican government, and they are trying to build tourism there. No luck so far, but the work they are doing is lovely!

Staging on a church - yikes!

Carla & Lizeth on the monastery wall

Caption: We spent some time there raking up leaves and twigs, and picking up old wood. We also bagged up all the plastic bottles, ready to go to a recycler.

Juan & Carlos build a fire at our land

entrance to our adobe house

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